Daily Digest – September 6: The Un-Fuzzy Math

Joan Walsh writes that Bill Clinton’s speech was a call for solidarity both in our economic policy and within the Democratic Party, laying out how Obama has played the hand he was dealt and the choice voters face in November in detail. So, so much detail.

Monica Potts argues that Elizabeth Warren’s speech, in which she made the reasonable point that we should count corporations as people when they start doing people things, underscored how much she has influenced the Democrats’ message.

Andrew Leonard asks whether the economy is on the upswing and concludes that any real improvement is unlikely to kick in for another four years, at which point the GOP and President Romney would be more than happy to take credit for it.

Alan S. Blinder makes the case that from budget cuts to financial deregulation, the Romney/Ryan duo isn’t just challenging Obama. It’s running against FDR and every other president in the last 70 years who preferred the New Deal to the old one.

Romney’s new housing plan is not very new, and it’s not much of a plan (WaPo)

Suzy Khimm notes that Romney has finally released what could charitably be called details on his housing policy, and it seems like he blanked out on this question, so he’s copying the president’s answers even though he thinks they’re all wrong.

Matthew Yglesias argues that claiming that the United States is out of money and can’t afford to pay for anything is pretty silly given that we could start printing more money until everyone’s bank account turns into a big infinity symbol if we wanted to.

David Leonhardt notes that while raising the minimum wage would benefit low-income workers and help fight inequality, the data suggests that’s not what’s been holding back wage growth for the last 20 years. Because that would be way too easy.

Kay Steiger warns Americans headed back to school this month that a new CFPB report shows private lenders aren’t offering them more money than they need out of the goodness of their hearts — it’s just more debt they know borrowers can’t discharge.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon talks to financiers who feel like they had a real connection with Obama until he got elected and started acting all distant and mean and even called them fat cats that one time. They’re just pleasantly plump, okay? Words hurt.